Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As two world wars whittled down the powerful British Empire, it still remained a major
cultural force.
British art mirrored many of the trends and “-isms” pioneered in Paris. You'll see Cu-
bism like Picasso's, abstract art like Mondrian's, and so on. But British artists also contin-
ued the British tradition of realistic paintings of people and landscapes. (Note: You'll find
20th-century artists' work both here in the Tate Britain and in the Tate Modern—
see
also the Tate Modern Tour chapter.)
World War I, in which Britain lost a million men, cast a long shadow over the land.
Artists expressed the horror of war, particularly of dehumanizing battles pitting power-
ful machines against puny human pawns. Jacob Epstein's (1880-1959) gleaming, abstract
statues suggest mangled half-human/half-machine forms.
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Twice a week, young Henry Moore went to the British Museum to sketch ancient statues,
especially reclining ones (as in the Parthenon pediment or the Mayan god, Chac Mool,
which he saw in a photo). His statues—mostly female, mostly reclining—catch the prim-
itive power of carved stone. Moore almost always carved with his own hands (unlike, say,
Rodin, who modeled a small clay figure and let assistants chisel the real thing), capturing
the human body in a few simple curves, with minimal changes to the rock itself.
The statues do look vaguely like what their titles say, but it's the stones themselves
that are really interesting. Notice the texture and graininess of these mini-Stonehenges;
feel the weight, the space they take up, and how the rock forms intermingle.
During World War II, Moore passed time in the bomb shelters sketching mothers with
babes in arms, a theme found in later works.
Moore carves the human body with the epic scale and restless poses of Michelangelo
but with the crude rocks and simple lines of the primitives.
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959)
Spencer paints unromanticized landscapes, portraits, and hometown scenes. Even the mi-
raculous
Resurrection of the Dead
is portrayed absolutely literally, with the dead climbing
out of their Glasgow graves. In fully modern times, Spencer carried on the British tradition
of sober realism.
